1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method an electrophotographic image forming apparatus corrects, for example, a misregistration among transferred images in respective colors (sometimes referred to as “color shift”), there is known a method to form a misregistration correction pattern on a conveyance belt on which a recording medium such as a sheet of paper is conveyed or an image carrier such as an intermediate transfer body, and detect position information of the misregistration correction pattern formed on the conveyance belt or the image carrier by means of a sensor, and then correct misregistration on the basis of the detected position information. For example, Japanese Patent No. 4815334 discloses a technology for correction of misregistration by forming and detecting a speed fluctuation pattern of rotation speed of each of multiple photoreceptors.
However, the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4815334 has a problem that user down-time occurs due to the formation/detection of multiple speed fluctuation patterns. Therefore, there is a need for an image forming apparatus and image forming method capable of suppressing deterioration of the image quality while suppressing the user down-time.